Aibu in being shocked at this school newsletter?

[whensitmyturn]

Aibu in being pretty appalled at this school news letter or am i being naive?

Children attend a catholic primary school- dh is Catholic I am not. Never had an issue with the school, children are in the last couple of years there.

Had a newsletter home tonight saying that a new ‘children and social work act of 2017’ has been passed and that parents will no longer be able to remove their children for PSHE lessons but that the government are still deciding what content the lessons should have. There is a public questionnaire on gov.uk to write your ideas.

The newsletter then goes on to say that we need to ensure that things that are age suited to children get suggested and I quote ‘to avoid respect for alternative lifestyles being allowed to undermine Christian principles of marriage and family life’.

It then goes on to link ‘coalition for marriage’ for help with us filling in this questionnaire.

Coalition 4 marriage is a group that promotes a traditional family set up and states that children should be taught that ‘marriage between a man and a woman as the gold standard of adult relationships’ Also that ‘they believe there is no age-appropriate way to teach primary school children about same sex marriages or transgenderism’. In blinding hypocrisy it then goes on to say ‘we should be teaching children broad values of tolerance and respect’.

!? I thought that in this day and age in the uk even if you attend a faith school inclusivity was seen as important/ the norm.
Would you be angry at this or just see it as an unavoidable downside of attending a catholic school?

In my area there are only three non-denominational schools. Of approximately 20 primaries.

In school applications we are the lowest criteria for entry for all but those three.

Our non-Christened children could well end up at a Catholic school and this boils my piss.

I’d contact the governors, the head and the LEA and ask for a clear outline of exactly what they teach children in this regard in case their peddling of hateful bigotry extends beyond this newsletter. And I would be looking, if possible, for a new and less hateful school.

The Christian teaching is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Of course this is the message that a Catholic school will teach. They will teach about marriage being a sacrament and what that means to Catholic people. It isn't homophobic but it isn't PC either. Don't send your children to Catholic schools of you have a problem with this.

I wouldn't be happy, my children do go to a Catholic school and it's extremely tolerant of all faiths, family set ups.

I also teach in a Catholic high school and we teach about transgender, homosexuality and all aspects of nearly all mainstream faiths. All done positively.

The school is out of line, even for a Catholic one.

not sure why you are so surprised. Do you know anything about the Catholic church? If so, you should not really be surprised. I would never send my children to a Catholic school.

Are you going to respond to the letter?

Yep, religious school, no surprise.

I know it’s different but when we lived in Latin America the RE teacher in DD’s (non religious) school told their Jewish classmate that her religion wasn’t a real religion because Catholism is the only true religion.

If you don’t agree with the school’s teachings, and don’t want to raise them as Catholics then look into moving them.

If this has really come out of the blue and until now it's just been 'prayers, hymns and trips to the church nothing over zealous', then I'd both contribute to the consultation and write to the school, in the strongest terms.

I wouldn't hesitate to remove my children from PSHE lessons either, on grounds of a sudden change in direction/policy.

My son goes to a catholic school as it’s a very good school, he was being terribly bullied at the last school and it’s also on our doorstep.

He knows not to take any notice of this crap in RE lessons. We talk at home about gay marriage, abortion, women’s issues etc. He isn’t rude but he knows we don’t believe in that sort of thing. If he’d been interested and wanted to live by catholic values then fair enough but he doesn’t.

What do you expect from people that believe in sky fairys

You only make yourself appear ignorant with comments like this.

We are Catholics. DC went to Catholic school so were taught this sort of thing (as was my DH in his day). We talked about it and asked them if they agreed with those teachings. Of course they didn't (having been raised in a family with several gay members including the man who is godfather to all our children). We told them that those sort of things were old fashioned rules, left over from the history of the church and as modern Catholics it was fine to follow their consciences and speak up when they thought something was wrong.

I used to feel quite sorry for their RE teachers. It must be tough to be in front of a class of 30 lively South London girls and try and convince them that contraception/homosexuality etc are wrong. I understand that the debates were often heated.

I am still glad they had the Catholic education though. It taught them good stuff about their faith and the importance of kindness, charity and community as well as developing their critical thinking skills when faced with outdated attitudes.

It IS homophobic JJPP. Completely and utterly.

I find the traditional catholic views ignorant.

Grrr it makes me so mad that state schools are allowed to be religious. It's a disgrace.

Utterly MeYou. Totally bonkers.

waffles if thats true then 99% of religion is homophobic

Pickleypickles that's probably not far off

Yup!

Yep.

You need to consider that the Catholic definition of marriage is different to the general definition. Gay people cannot meet the Catholic definition of marriage, they cannot procreate.

The Christian teaching is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Of course this is the message that a Catholic school will teach. They will teach about marriage being a sacrament and what that means to Catholic people. It isn't homophobic but it isn't PC either.

I went to a catholic school, so did my kids. They were exposed to these ideas, but it didn’t effect there thoughts and feelings.

JJPP. that procreation thing really annoys me. It's so illogical. If a couple marry and then they discover they cannot conceive for medical reasons are they no longer married? Do we stop being married once a woman is menopausal?

I nearly every thing about Catholicism (or any faith) is inherently illogical but for some reason I find that one particularly annoying.

I don't need to consider views that I consider backwards. The sooner those views are consigned to the history books the better.

But they allow people to marry past the age of procreation, so that doesn’t really hold.

Please don't put all faith schools in this category.

My DCs go to a wonderful CoE school, where many gay couples choose to send their children. They definitely don't teach children 'those sorts of values'. They teach tolerance and respect. It's a disgrace that some faith schools don't, but please don't generalise.

And that in itself is totally homophonic.

If I decide that the definition of a spoon is, in my mind, a sharp object used for cutting materials, it doesn’t make all spoons knives.

If our society - made up by a majority of non-Catholics - deems marriage to be a union between two people regardless on gender, then that’s what it is.